Whilst many of the comments made on stories on www.royalgazette.com are sane, many are also the definition of vitriol — and insanity.As a newspaper, The Royal Gazette is clearly a staunch supporter of freedom of speech, but it will never condone personal attacks, xenophobia and ill-informed rants — which unfortunately are all too frequently seen in the comments section of our stories.So, why don’t you do something about it, you ask? Well, we do. We moderate and edit comments and we frequently ban people from commenting if they overstep the mark, but our biggest moderator is you, the reader.The Royal Gazette cannot be moderating the comments 24/7 and we had hoped that our comments section would be more self-policed with people using the ‘report abuse’ button. That has not happened as consistently as this newspaper had hoped — and still hopes.This newspaper had also hoped that the comments section would be a useful platform for the public to have their say and let the politicians et al know the mood of the people. That has not always been the case, which is shame and a reflection, not on this newspaper, but on the people who write the comments.We have choices and this newspaper would like to hear from its readers which choice they favour. It will help us shape future policy.1. Allow all comments unmoderated, relying solely on the report abuse button2. Moderate all comments before they are posted3. Do not allow any comments at all4. A mixture of moderation and using the report abuse button5. Requiring people to use a credit card in order to register6. Only allowing people to sign in with a Facebook or Twitter account to avoid anonymityThere are probably other options, but this newspaper would like to hear opinions on the above.George Eliot (the male pen name of successful UK author Mary Anne Evans) said: “I’ll tell you what’s the greatest power under heaven, and that is public opinion — the ruling belief in society about what is right and what is wrong, what is honourable and what is shameful. That’s the steam that is to work the engines.”Quite true. However, some of the comments are more than just letting off steam, put simply they are disgraceful and those making them behind the cloak of anonymity are cowards — please continue to use the report abuse button to get rid of them.E-mail your thoughts to acting Editor Jeremy Deacon, jdeacon@royalgazette.com, leave a (respectful) comment on our website version of this editorial, or follow me on Twitter and leave a tweet: https://twitter.com/jeremydeacon1.